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Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo |image = |Full Name = Alfa Romeo SpA (1950-51) Autodelta (1979) Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo (1980-83) Benetton Team Alfa Romeo (1984-85) |Base = Milan, Italy |Founder(s) = Nicola Romeo Alexandre Darracq |Noted Staff = Vittorio Jano Gioacchino Colombo Carlo Chiti |Noted Drivers = Tazio Nuvolari Giuseppe Farina Juan Manuel Fangio |years = - , - |debut = 1950 British Grand Prix |Races Competed = 110 |Constructors' Championships = 0 |Drivers' Championships = 2 ( , ) |wins = 10 |Poles = 12 |Fastest Laps = 14 |Final race = 1985 Australian Grand Prix}}Alfa Romeo was a Grand Prix racing team that competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1951 and again in 1979 to 1985. Alfa Romeo won the first Automobile World Championship in the history of automobile racing, and their drivers won the first two European Championships. The team later won the Drivers' Championship twice with Giuseppe Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951. History Origins Alfa Romeo had been competitive in Grand Prix racing both before and after The Second World War. Shortly after A.L.F.A was founded the company began motor racing. They competed in the 1911 Targo Florio with two 24 HP models. Alfa's first succes came in 1913 when Nino Franchini finished second in the Parma-Poggio Berceto race in a 40-60HP. In 1923 designer Vittorio Jano joined Alfa from Fiat and designed cars that led to success into the late 1930's. Jano was sacked when they began loosing. World Manufacturers' Championship In 1925 Alfa Romeo won the first Automobile World Championship in the history of automobile racing. Over 4 rounds the Alfa Romeo P2; designed by Jano, won the European Grand Prix at Spa and the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, and hence incorporated the laurel wreath in their logo. European Championship : See also: Scuderia Ferrari The 1931 season saw the intorduction of the AIACR European Drivers' Championship. Despite not winning a single championship race Alfa driver Ferdinando Minoia was crowned the first European champion. Fellow Alfa drivers Tazio Nuvolari and Giuseppe Campari shared a victory at the first championship event in Italy. Alfa Romeo cars also won a further 6 non-championship Grands Prix. For 1932 Jano produced the P3 which won its first race driven by Nuvolari at the Italian Grand Prix. The P3 entered 5 more Grands Prix that year which were shared by Nuvolari and Rudolf Caracciola. Nuvolari secured the team's second European Drivers' Championship with two wins, while Caracciola won the third and final race of the championship. The Alfa Corse factory team closed for 1933 and they locked the cars in the factory. Eventually they were transferred to Enzo Ferrari's now privatised 'factory' team Scuderia Ferrari. P3s then won six of the final 11 events of the season including the final 2 major Grands Prix in Italy and Spain. In 1934 Louis Chiron won the French Grand Prix in the P3 whilst the German Silver Arrows dominated the other 4 championship events. However the P3s won 18 of the 35 Grands Prix held throughout Europe. 1935 was even tougher, the P3 was simply outclassed by the remorseless Silver Arrows, but Tazio Nuvolari gave it one of the most legendary victories of all time by winning the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. In total the P3 managed 16 victories during 1935. For 1936 the Alfa Romeo 12C was introduced. The car suffered poor handling and as a result Vittorio Jano resigned from the team at the end of the year. In 1938 Alfa Romeo decided to return to racing. They made Enzo the new Direttore Sportivo of Alfa Corse, after buying the shares of the Scuderia Ferrari in 1937 and transferring, from January 1, 1938, the official racing activity to Alfa Corse. Three new cars were designed for the new season, the 308, 312 and 316. However they were not a great success. Instead, the new car for the 1500 cc class, the 158 voiturette, designed in 1937 and first raced at the Coppa Ciano in August 1938, proved much more successful. Nuvolari 1932 Italy.jpg|Nuvolari at the 1932 Italian GP Post war After the war and with the absence of the German marques such as Mercedes, Alfa dominated Grand Prix racing with their 158 car that they continued to develop, their main competition coming from Maserati. Formula One 1950 Farina won the opening race in Britain while Fagioli and Reg Parnell finished second and third. Fangio retired with engine trouble. At the next race in Monaco Farina trigged a nine car pile up at the flooded Tabac corner while Fangio, who had got a better start and missed the carnage, went onto win the race. Farina and fangio headed to Switzerland joint first in the Championship. Farina and Fagioli scored a one-two while once again Fangio suffered an engine failure. At Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix Fangio fought back to win his second race of the year ahead of Fagioli. Farina sturggled but managed to secure a fourth place which would be important in the championship battle. After making an amazing start at the French Grand Prix Farina retired gifting victory to Fangio ahead of Fagioli. The championship would go down to the final race, all three of the Alfa drivers having a chance to win it. At Monza Fagioli was the least likely to secure the crown; he had a series of second places and the points system did not favour him. For Farina to win the championship he had to finish first and Fangio had to finish third or lower. Farina took the lead follwed by Ascari, but Fangio was driving perfectly doing just enough for him to secure the championship when on lap 22 he suffered a gearbox problem. He took over the car of Tarufii and began to race again but on lap 35 had to retire again gifting Farina the championship. In non-championship races Fangio took a further four wins and two seconds from eight starts. 1950-british-gp-giuseppe-farina-alfa-romeo-158.jpg|Farina at the British GP 1951 In 1951 Alfa continued their dominance with Juan Manuel Fangio winning the championship while driving the new Alfetta 159 (an evolution of the 158 with a two-stage compressor). The Alfetta's engines were extremely powerful for their capacity: the new 159 engine was producing around 420 bhp (310 kW), but this was at the price of a fuel consumption of 125 to 175 litres per 100 km (1 mpg–U.S. / 2 mpg–imp). The rival Ferraris were able to capitalize on this inefficiency, particularly at Silverstone. Although the Alfas won four races, three for Fangio and a single win for Farina, Ferrari's three victories spelled the end of their dominance. In 1952 Alfa Romeo, a state-owned company, decided to withdraw after a refusal of the Italian government to fund the expensive design of a new car to compete against the Ferrari team. Surprisingly, Alfa Romeo's involvement in Formula One was made with a very thin budget, using mostly pre-war technology and material during their two dominant seasons, such as using only nine pre-war built engine blocks. Farina 1951 Belgium.jpg|Farina at the 1951 Belgian GP 1977 - 1979 Between 1951 and 1977 Alfa Romeo only participated as an engine supplier to teams such as Brabham. This second Alfa works Formula One project was never truly successful during its existence from the middle of 1979 until the end of 1985. During 1977, and after some persuasion by Chiti, Alfa Romeo gave Autodelta permission to start developing a Formula One car on their behalf. Thus named the Alfa Romeo 177, the car made its debut at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix. The engine partnership with Brabham had finished before the end of the season. 1980 - 1982 During this period Alfa Romeo achieved two pole positions, Bruno Giacomelli led much of the 1980 United States Grand Prix before retiring with electrical trouble, three 3rd places, two 2nd places and one fastest lap. They also endured tragedy when their driver Patrick Depailler was killed testing for the 1980 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring. In they had the services of Mario Andretti, but continued to be dogged by poor reliability. After a restructuring of Autodelta, the team operations and design of the car were outsourced to Euroracing in , with the works engines still being supplied by Autodelta. 1983 - 1985 The team's best season was when the team switched to the turbocharged 890T V8 engine and achieved 6th place in the constructors' championship, largely thanks to two second place finishes for Andrea de Cesaris. While the turbocharged 890T proved competitive in 1983, the more powerful and fuel efficient engines from BMW, Ferrari, Renault, TAG-Porsche and Honda, plus the FIA imposed 220 litre fuel limit with no re-fueling allowed during pit stops during , saw the decline of the Euroracing Alfa Romeo team as a competitive force in Grand Prix racing. Riccardo Patrese's third place finish at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix being the last podium finish for the team, with both Patrese and Eddie Cheever often failing to finish races throughout 1984 and due to running out of fuel. Alfa Romeo pulled out of Formula One as a constructor following the final race of the 1985 season in Australia. Complete Formula One World Championship results : See also: Alfa Romeo Grand Prix results (key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) a The Constructors Championship was not awarded until . b Indicates a shared drive. References #http://www.statsf1.com/en/alfa-romeo.aspx #http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-alfa.html #http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_in_Formula_One Category:Teams Category:Formula One Constructors Category:Italian Teams